Ark Investment CEO: Bitcoin is Bigger Than Apple

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“I know a lot of people say, ‘don’t compare this to Apple, which is nearing a trillion dollars, but this is so much bigger than even Apple, which is a pretty big idea.”

She said her fund cannot own bitcoin directly. So in 2015, Ark Investment Management bought shares of the Bitcoin Investment Trust. Bitcoin at the time was trading below $250. This month, it neared $20,000.

BIT Expected To Triple

At present, the Bitcoin Investment Trust — the flagship product of Barry Silbert’s Grayscale Investments — is the only publicly-quoted bitcoin investment vehicle in the U.S. market available to institutional investors. Unlike most of the firms that have applied for bitcoin ETFs, GBTC holds the underlying assets directly instead of trading in derivatives contracts.

The trust’s value to investors has been subject to debate, as its shares have traded at a significant premium over the net asset value (NAV) of the underlying asset. At one point during August, GBTC shares leaped to double the NAV, although the spread settled down to about 20% in October.

Despite the premium price, Lee wrote in a report that “GBTC at $688 and with 20% NAV premium is an attractive way to gain exposure to bitcoin,” stating that the NAV spread is inaccurate because it does not factor in the value of the airdropped coins from Bitcoin Cash and Bitcoin Gold, altcoins that were created from bitcoin forks. When Lee wrote his report, those assets added a combined $53 to the NAV of GBTC shares.

Ark On The Move

ARK Investment Management LLC recently acquired a new position in Facebook Inc. during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), reported Banglore Weekly. The company acquired 65,981 shares of the social networking company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,591,000. Facebook comprises 2.8% of ARK Investment Management LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 10th largest position.

Wood founded ARK in January 2014, after completing 12 years as the chief investment officer of Global Thematic Strategies for Alliance Bernstein managing over $5 billion AUM.